The Magic Apple

M

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,071
Reaction score
2,655
I thought I'd start a thread about the season 2 segment The Magic Apple. For those who haven't seen the sketch, it's a story segment, with Bob reading and Ernie acting out the story with other characters. The story plot invovles a fairy godmother who offers to grant Ernie one wish, but Ernie has to get a golden apple from a high tree branch down first. The reason isn't really explained (and the fairy godmother leaves shortly after, never appearing again in the sketch).

One thing that's interesting is that this sketch is a bit long for a second season sketch. I was surprised to watch it on sesamestreet.org and see that it was 8 minutes and something seconds long. It could probably be remade for the show today. Unfortunately (I mean unfortunate because of the legnth) it's the only classic sketch listed under "most popular" in the video listing on video pages on the site. I read some of the CTW archive files scanned at Muppet Wiki on the talk page for University of Maryland, from testing of season two episodes, and it weas said there that kids got bored with really long sketches. I don't think this sketch was mentoned at all in those papers, but I figure it wasn't shown in many episodes. I think Muppet Wiki only lists two episodes that mention the sketches inclusion.

But there are some interesting thigns about it. All of the main seaosn two performers have speaking roles (even Caroll Spinney as a man who helps Ernie). The fairy godmother in this sketch also appeared in a sketch with Cookie Monster, and interestingly both of these sketches are in episode 179. On the site I think that other sketch is titled "The Fairy Godmother".
 
StreetScenes

StreetScenes

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2008
Messages
331
Reaction score
6
minor muppetz said:
One thing that's interesting is that this sketch is a bit long for a second season sketch.
Click to expand...
fun idea for a thread! here's what i like about this sketch: the story's length is in part due to repetition, which has both educational and comedic value here, which is brilliant. sometimes bob reads a line from the story, and then a muppet says it again acting it out; other times the muppets get confused or off topic trying to act it out and bob or ernie repeats the thought. either way, instead of being boring, the educational repetition is actually the source of the comedy, because it creates this anticipation--you've just heard what's about to happen, you want to know how muppet antics are going to mess with it, and when they do, it's even funnier than if they simply acted it out. plus, the dialogue between bob and the muppets (where bob is both reading the book and talking to the muppets, and the muppets are both acting out the story and discussing it with bob) creates a very appealing relationship between reading and imaginative play.

oy. apologies for the analytical tone...by way of explanation, i refer you to the onion article where a graduate student "deconstructed the take-out menu of a local Mexican restaurant 'out of sheer force of habit.'" :embarrassed:
 
StreetScenes

StreetScenes

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2008
Messages
331
Reaction score
6
to take my last point a step further, the other cool result of the interaction between bob & the muppets is a model for the viewer of the creative relationship of an individual to an existing text: an existing story *invites* creativity rather than stifling it. the texts here are the story book bob is reading, the script of the play the muppets are acting out, and, on a higher level, the tv script the cast is working off of.

in this sketch, none of these texts is sacred--all can be and are manipulated. the muppets' planned creative act of performing the story plays with literary conventions (by repeating descriptions like "poor but honest," emphasizing the abruptness of the fairy godmother's entrance/exit, giving the farmer a thick new england accent, stressing the fairy godmother's exaggerated use of the word "yon," etc.). plus, the interaction between bob and the muppets basically shows them taking that storybook/play script and moving it in new directions spontaneously. this shows the audience that texts are not fixed--stories are jumping off points for your own imagination and you can engage with them in many different ways.

on the level of television production, this happens all the time with muppet improv taking off from the approved screenplay. i don't know if any of the lines in this sketch went off script, but bob's reaction to ernie's quip "i've never been in a story before" makes me think that that could be a line that jim changed with each take. on top of all that, the humor in that line is in reference to ernie being a fictional television character who exists entirely in stories. so, parallel to the character of bert constantly aknowledging he's in a play, ernie's line is an aknowledgement by jim that he's performing, too.

ok...must stop...before the men in white coats come to take me away...sesame street is just so brilliant, i can't help it...
 
StreetScenes

StreetScenes

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2008
Messages
331
Reaction score
6
minor muppetz said:
I don't agree. Bert obviously doesn't want to be the princess ( wonder why the fairy godmother couldn't have been the princcess, too), and Ernie leaves Bert behind after the story is done.
Click to expand...
definitely. both of thse things are seen in other sesame street sketches, too. first, bert as princess isn't about being in drag--it's about bert always getting suckered into playing the roles he doesn't want to play. this always happens to him--they make him the tree in the christmas pageant, and the cow in jack in the beanstalk.

second, ernie ditches him. throughout the play, even though the storybook has the farm boy wishing to marry a beautiful princess, ernie is never interested in the princess, only in the banana milk shakes and rubber duckies. this is part of what i was talking about earlier with the muppets using the written story as a starting point for their own creativity.
 
A

antsamthompson9

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
3,384
Reaction score
1,684
I'm sorry about my first post. I diden't know you coulde'nt say you-know-what on Muppet Central.
 
M

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,071
Reaction score
2,655
antsamthompson9 said:
I'm sorry about my first post. I diden't know you coulde'nt say you-know-what on Muppet Central.
Click to expand...
I didn't know it either. And now my reply to that seems awkward to those who didn't see it earlier, since it appears to be an out-of-place comment regarding the link.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top